Except, you know, that ‘use it up before Lent” is kinda bogus. Your hens would be off the lay and your cows drying up already; fasting in the Hunger Moon happens by itself. I think the Mardi Gras pancakes are more about making big round yellow things ( & possibly having pancake races) to encourage the sun to go faster and get warmer. The Hot Corss Bun, according to Elizabeth David’s English Bread and Yeast Cookery, was originally a round rich bun flavored and colored with saffron and the cross cut on; a symbol which speaks to prehistorians everywhere as a Solar Wheel.

I strongly recommend the British kind — no leaven, lots of eggs and milk and enough flour to hold it together – with either traditional lemon and powdered sugar (I don’t really recommend this, actually) or marmalade. Or maple syrup.

Kelly (#6): If your baking powder is slightly old (but not too far gone), you can compensate for the loss of leavenng power by adding a little extra (although determining just how much extra to add is a bit of a gamble). Once it’s gets really old, this technique is not really useful. I’d chuck the stuff with a 2000 expiration date, but you don’t necessarily have to throw out a can of the stuff as soon as its date arrives — you can get by for maybe a year or two past the exp date.

My favorite source on this topic is “The Pancake Handbook: Specialties from Bette’s Oceanview Diner,” which I didn’t see on the website you link here. Is a comprehensive site on pancakes possible? The SF Chronicle did a fun series a while back in which they had recipes for the pancake and dumpling variations from around the world. I don’t eat pancakes that much these days, though, at least not the buttermilk/white flour variety. I guess that’s why it’s called Fat Tuesday.

My Dad, who claims that my greatest inheritance will be his German grandmother’s iron pot, always treated us to the German tradition of feasting on homemade “fastnachts” for our Shrove Tuesday dinner. (It was usually Mom who was stuck with frying them). Essentially yeasty doughnuts, showered with powdered sugar, they were a happy treat before a month of having to give up ice cream for Lent.